BIEDS OF iSrORTH AND MIDDLE AMEEICA. 767 



Genus CICERONIA Reichenbach. 



Ciceronia Reichenbach, Natiirl. Syst. Vog., 1852, p. iii. (Type, by original 

 designation, Phaleris nodirostra Bonaparte = Uria pusilla Pallas.) 



Very small Phalerinse '^ (wing 88-98 mm.) with small, subconical, 

 little-compressed bill, and no frontal crest, but with a deciduous, com- 

 pressed knob near base of culm en during breeding season. 



Bill relatively small, the exposed culmen only about half as long 

 as tarsus, subconical but with culmen distinctly convex, slightly 

 compressed, its width at base of exposed culmen slightly less than its 

 depth at same point; gonys about as long as distance from nostril to 

 tip of maxilla, straight or very faintly convex, ascending terminally, 

 its basal angle moderately prominent; tomia nearly straight, both 

 very slightly notched sub terminally; nostril longitudinal, narrowly 

 ovate, overhung by the flaring or reflexed edge of the semi-corneous 

 nasal membrane, which also separates the nostril from the loral or 

 latero-frontal feathering; mandibular rami feathered nearly to its 

 anterior end, the malar antia about on line (vertically) with middle 

 of nostril, and nearly if not quite as far forward as mental antia; 

 latero-frontal antia about on line (vertically) with posterior end of 

 nostril, the medio-frontal hne very slightly receding. Wing rather 

 small, the longest primaries (two outermost) exceeding distal sec- 

 ondaries by decidedly less than half (little more than one-third) the 

 length of wing. Tail about one-third as long as wing, slightly 

 rounded; rectrices 14. Tarsus slightly shorter than middle toe 

 without claw, the acrotarsium reticulate; outer toe (without claw) as 

 long as middle toe (without claw), the inner toe as long as first two 

 phalanges of middle toe. 



Nirptial ornaments. — During breeding season, at the base of culmen 

 a small compressed knob, a median outgrowth from the supranasal 

 saddle; forehead and anterior portion of lores with rather short 

 acicular white feathers, besides two lines of elongated acicular white 

 feathers, one originating at the rictus and extending backward 

 between the suborbital and malar regions, the other starting hume- 

 diately beneath eye and extending backward along upper edge of 

 auricular region. 



Coloration. — ^Above plain blackish, the outermost scapulars inter- 

 mixed with white, the proximal secondaries tipped with whitish; under 

 parts mostly white, in breeding season more or less spotted or blotched 

 with dusky, this often forming a distinct band across foreneck. 



Range. — Coasts and islands of Bering Sea, and southward to 

 Washington and northern Japan. (Monotypic.) 



a Smallest of the Alcidas 



